“We’re really working hard and we wanted to bring in some top leaders in Florida,” REC Chairman Randy Osborne said on Tuesday.

“We’re very ecstatic about both of them coming here. It’ll be one of the biggest political draws we’ve had in quite a while.”

Sue Mosley, chairwoman of the event, said on Tuesday that “good connections” helped the REC land two of the state’s top elected officials.

“There is a new regime at the REC and we’re trying to shake things up,” Mosley said. “We want to bring Marion County into the new millennium, to where it belongs politically.”

Osborne took over in December for former chairman and longtime local GOP leader Roy Abshier.

Mosley cited the upcoming Lincoln-Reagan event as an example of the changes.

The dinner will be a formal, black-tie affair, said Mosley, a distinction from past events.

Scott was just in Ocala in mid-March to tour the Ocala-Marion County Commerce Park, the future home to a FedEx distribution hub, and the former Taylor, Bean & Whitaker building, which will become a logistics center for R+L Carriers, the company owned by local trucking magnate Larry Roberts.

Next week’s visit to Ocala comes as public opinion polls show Scott’s popularity is in a rut.

In March, two separate national pollsters released findings that showed Scott getting drubbed in hypothetical matchups against former GOP governor Charlie Crist, now a Democrat.

Scott, according to both polls, also would lose in a contest with Atwater’s predecessor, Alex Sink, another Democrat expected to vie for the top spot on the party’s gubernatorial ticket.

Scott, who was widely heralded as the tea party’s candidate during his initial bid in 2010, tacked to the center at the beginning of they year, reversing his earlier position on supporting the Obama administration’s offer to fund the expansion of Medicaid and proposing a $2,500 raise for public school teachers.

Still, according to the surveys conducted by Quinnipiac University and Public Policy Polling six weeks ago, Scott could not nudge his approval rating. Only about one-third of all voters approve of his job performance, the polls indicated.

And while Republicans were more staunchly behind Scott than other voters, Public Policy Polling described his re-election chances at this point as “incredibly precarious,” given the disdain for him shown by non-Republicans and backing among the GOP faithful that the pollster characterized as tepid.

“People are on the fence about the governor,” Mosley noted, “but they’re still coming out.”

Osborne said Scott apparently took notice of how the Marion REC had made a mark among county GOP executive committees around the state.

While Abshier did an “excellent, excellent” job in running the party, he said, it was evident the Marion GOP needed a technological upgrade to expand its reach.

As a result, Marion’s panel is leading the state in some ways in reaching out to voters, Osborne added.

That’s primarily due to a new communications system designed to help the local party become more in tune with the issues of the people it represents, he said.

Osborne noted that the typical pre-Election Day “carpet bomb” approach had to be changed in favor of a more “personal touch.”

“We’re working diligently on talking to our constituents on a one-on-one basis,” he said.

As for the dinner, Mosley had only one lament: that she didn’t get her first choice for the keynote speaker — rock star Ted Nugent, who in recent years has become a prominent figure in conservative political circles.

Mosely said Nugent’s asking price — $35,000 to attend the event, $40,000 to give a speech — was way outside the REC’s budget.

The REC is fetching $100 apiece for tickets for the Lincoln-Reagan event, which is the REC’s biggest fundraiser. It will be held May 11 at the Ocala Hilton.

Mosley said there were about 30 tickets left of the 300-guest maximum seating capacity set by the Hilton staff.

The party, Osborne said, will use the funds for administrative purposes and for maintenance of the Republican headquarters on East Silver Springs Boulevard.